Deer charges into a Publix, sending customers running for cover
SOUTH FULTON, Ga. - Somehow, a deer made its way into a Georgia Publix grocery store and began playing Supermarket Sweep.
As customers ran for cover, firefighters were called to corral the disoriented doe.
"Y’all, there’s a deer!" one customer said in a video of the ordeal. "It’s Bambi!" said another.
The deer got into the Cascade Road Publix location in South Fulton, a city just south of Atlanta, on Monday afternoon.
Adrianne Dowdy said she was in line at the deli counter trying to order a sandwich when she saw the deer charge through the store.
"It was just shocking, like why is there a deer inside of a grocery store?" Dowdy said. "Initially, people were freaking out, people were running, like nobody wants to get run over by a deer."
She said she saw one customer hop in his shopping cart for protection. Others just tried to stay out of the way of the deer.
Then, it started getting a little too close for comfort for Adrianne, but she still wanted her lunch.
"Next thing you know, it was running in my direction so I ran to the side," she said. "Then I went back in line so I was like maybe they’ll make my sandwich."
Firefighters with the South Fulton Fire & Rescue raced to the bizarre call.
Fire chief Chad Jones said it took ten to fifteen minutes for them to corral the unwanted shopper and get it out. He said his crew used shopping carts to create a barricade.
The whole ordeal left Adrianne with no sandwich -- but a lot of questions.
"This is Atlanta so how did a deer get over here, you know? I didn’t think it was a woody area."
Jones said firefighters believed that the deer had been hit by a car and was disoriented when it wandered in.
Once they got it out, it ran off and has reportedly not returned since.
Multiple requests for comment from Publix spokespeople as to how this could have happened went unanswered.
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